Do You Use Wikipedia?

Dear friends,

Do you use Wikipedia?  I know I use it a lot and find it very helpful for the most part.  If you use it too, please consider making a small donation to keep it going. I made my small donation of $5. last year and again this year. If we all do our part, we can continue to have this service benefit us when we need it.

Here is an excerpt from the personal appeal from the founder of Wikipedia.
With just a few days to go in our 2011 fundraiser, we're so close to reaching our annual budget. Then we’ll have everything we need to keep Wikipedia going in 2012.

Only about 1 of 500 Wikipedia users donates each year. But that’s enough to keep us free for the whole world to use, without ads, and without restriction.

When we raise our budget, we stop fundraising. Please help us end this year’s fundraiser today with a donation of $5, $20, $50 or whatever you can.

Thanks and Happy New Year,

Jimmy Wales

An Update on Mama Linet

My friend visited Mama Linet on December 12, 2011 to take her some support I sent to try and help her get on her feet.  Some of you remember me writing about Mama Linet before. She is the young mother with the little girl named Linet who has a cleft palate.

I came to know of Mama Linet through my friend Jonah.  He found this little family while on a medical mission.  On that mission he learned about the little girl Linet who was rapidly losing weight and could not eat.  He felt led to help her get some medical attention and the right food to help her get stronger.  He was so gratified and excited when the little girl stopped losing weight and started to get healthier. Now the little girl is thriving, running around, playing and drawing.  She still needs cleft palate surgery and hopefully she will be able to get it some day.

In the meantime, we also wanted to help this mother try to provide for her family since times are very hard in Kenya with runaway inflation and poor maize prices.  Initially, the young mom thought she would like to try and start a beauty salon.  After she thought about it some more, she decided to start a  charcoal business instead.  I do hope and pray that she will make a success of it for the future of herself and her children.

(Click photos to enlarge)

Here is Mama Linet with her children and the charcoal she is now selling.

My friend also visited some Internally Displaced People (IDP) in early December.  He returned to see them on December 24, 2011, to take food.  I wrote about this in my last two posts in case you are interested in reading more about this. It will bless you so much to see that someone's Christmas was brightened.

Jonah has visited the IDP Camp whenever he can to try to encourage the people and bring them hope. He tries to take blankets and mosquito nets whenever he can purchase them.  These IDPs are Kenyans and they were displaced about 4 years ago from their homes.  They lost everything and escaped with their lives after the ugly violence that erupted soon after the last national election in Kenya.

Here is Jonah distributing candy and medicine to the children as well as mosquito nets to some of the elderly.

These are the living conditions at the IDP camp.

We know that most people will never get a chance to go and visit these places.
We want to show you the conditions the people live in so you can determine whether you can share whatever you have to help these people.

Even a little goes a long way but we don't want anyone to give what they cannot afford. We only want you to give if you have enough food and if you are thankful for what you have.
We want you to give if you feel blessed enough to help someone else and have faith that your future needs will be met.

If you can help, you can do so here.

God bless.

Photo credits:  Jonah, Missions of Hope